What skills are necessary to interact with different types of text? Twenty-first century learners live in a digital world and must develop a whole new set of skills to develop media literacy. Class members engage in a series of...

What skills do employers look for in potential employees? Introduce scholars to the skills that pay the bills during the second of six career and college readiness lesson plans. Once they have defined critical 21st-century skills, groups...

What is a media baby? Discuss at what age children should be exposed to electronic media. After reading an article, they identify the types of media products for infants and toddlers. Learners will predict the effects of media on the...

High schoolers analyze photographs as a development activity for their literacy skills. They will review the 6 Q's feature for analyzing photographs and analyze a variety of photographs and then write comments in the space around the...

To protect young people from questionable content, many schools limit access. This resource suggests that because learners can so readily avail themselves to unrestricted Internet access, it is vital for 21st century...

Scholars become detectives and use science to solve a crime! A complete unit introduces DNA and includes hands-on activities that have learners model DNA and extract it from different food types. A culminating activity challenges...

One way to get your class to evaluate and synthesize multiple multimedia sources is through a research project. The idea here is that class members will watch videos and listen to scientific debates in order to create a casebook about...

Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...

Critically analyze advertising techniques, such as circular reasoning, bandwagon, testimonial, and repetition, with worksheets that effectively discuss and illustrate how the media aims to influence.

Literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather laws? Scholars study the systematic ways African-Americans were kept from voting even after it was made a law. They analyze a series of primary source documents, complete a worksheet, and engaged...

How can social media help or hinder civil dialogue? How can information shared on social media be verified? As the investigation of media reports of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown continues, class members read...

The debate over voting rights continues. To begin their study of voting rights, class members first vote on proposed new classroom rules. After a discussion of the activity, groups are given a copy of the 1965 Alabama Literacy Test and...

What does it take to create news stories that are both informative and objective? Aspiring journalists walk the line between engagement and activism with instructional activity 15 of a 16-part series titled The Social Media Toolbox....

Internet suffers could drown in the volume of information available on line. Here's an activity that can be a lifeline and buoy confidence in middle schoolers' ability to find reliable information and credible sources. After reading...

How many treats do you buy each week? Learners investigate diets and how the media tricks consumers into purchasing unhealthy snacks. They will investigate the designs and logos affiliated with cereal boxes and identify specific phrases...

Characters play a significant role in why we like certain shows and movies but are the characters we watch representing the diverse society in which we live? Scholars examine this question through thoughtful discussion about popular...

Women in power are the focus of a three-module unit that employs comic books to bring home the importance of equality and proficient media literacy skills. In module one, scholars examine gender roles in media—boosting media literacy and...

Young learners today are bombarded by media manipulation. Help them develop the skills they will need to become savvy 21st century media consumers with a unit on media literacy.

Students participate in Valentine's Day writing and literacy center activities. In this writing and literacy lesson, students develop Valentine's Day journals using recycled cards and small blank sheets of paper. They write sentences...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take your class on an underwater adventure. The final installment in a seven-part series involving salt and freshwater bodies takes junior oceanographers below the surface in...

As young consumers of media, it is important for high schoolers to explore concepts of bias and prejudice, and how they may be present in media. After discussing ideological messages that media can contain, individuals complete a warm-up...

From understanding stock market performance and return on investment to identifying the costs and benefits of credit and avoiding debt problems, this is an absolute must-have resource for financial planning and literacy.

Is social media the best way to convey news in your school? Young journalists dig deep into the social media question in the second of 16 lessons from The Social Media Toolbox. After learning about the relationship between social media...

The Mexican-American war marked a significant moment in United States history, as well as in the history of American media. The mid-nineteenth century saw the introduction of the Penny Press, which provided many American citizens with...